To give a true golf course feeling, it is desirable to use a golf flag for stroke practice in the game of golf, especially to serve as a target for driving or "shagging" golf balls. It is also desirable in connection with golf ball driving practice to have means available for retrieving the spent balls, without the need to stoop over and pick them up by hand.
Full size, regulation golf flag assemblies are cumbersome for golfers to carry and difficult to properly set in the ground. They come with a cup support which is not needed for driving practice without holes. Golf flag assemblies have been proposed which are readily portable and which do not require a cup for support. Examples of such devices having a single coaxially depending spike for setting the flagstaff are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,407,505 and 4,691,922. The spike is embedded in the ground by gripping the staff by hand and forcing it downward. This is an awkward maneuver and one that frequently results in the staff being driven in at an angle, or being anchored too loosely.
Various conventional devices exist for retrieving golf balls. Examples of such ball retrievers are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,203,170; 3,117,814; and 4,194,779. A typical arrangement, shown in the '170 patent, includes a hollow vertical tube having a lower opening for receiving and capturing the balls, and an upper opening for discharging them into a container, such as a sack or bag, surrounding the tube at the upper opening. Self-closing valve means, such as a plurality of resiliently yieldable, confronting fingers disposed at the lower opening, serves to prevent the escape of the balls once admitted. A handle is rigidly connected at the upper end of the tube to serve as a grip to carry and manipulate the retriever. In operation, the lower opening of the tube is pressed down on a ball, activating the valve means to pass the ball into the tube. Then, under action of subsequently retrieved balls, each ball is passed up the tube to the upper opening and over into the container. The ball retriever is a useful article, welcome at driving practice. But it is inconvenient to separately carry a practice flag assembly, a number of clubs and a ball retriever, all at once.